Strategy

What One Advisor Wants From Asset Managers

Pat — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:06:21 -0500

What do financial advisors want? Marketing staffs (and others) spend their days developing products and creating communications they hope will resonate with the advisor community. Despite all best efforts, some fall short.

In the 11 months since the launch of AdvisorTweets, we’ve learned a lot by “listening” to financial advisors’ tweets. In this post, we’re publishing excerpts from an interview we had with John Benedict, a 12-year financial advisor who recently broke from the FINRA-regulated broker-dealer world to establish his own registered investment advisor (RIA) J2Capital Management of Troy, MI. On Twitter, Benedict is @GeckoJB.

Benedict is critical of large asset managers’ approach to product development and its overall support of advisors. While this stance poses some discomfort for us (given that our clients are asset managers), we think there's value in these comments. They add context in a way that survey results can't. And, note that at the end of the interview, Benedict offers to help.

We first met Benedict when we were talking to a few advisors for a narrowly focused article for AdvisorTweets on the investment community’s approach to communicating during the May 6 “flash crash.” Did asset managers provide any helpful insights? What else might they have done?

For A Mix Of Marketing Topics: The MENG Blend

Pat — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:41:33 -0500

We keep the focus pretty narrow here on the Rock The Boat Marketing blog. If you’re interested in digital marketing (including social media) at mutual fund and exchange-traded (ETF) firms, you’ve come to the right place. We assume that you’re going elsewhere online to follow broader marketing topics.

Here’s a new site to add to your list of general marketing resources: the MENG Blend, a co-operative blog organized by the Marketing Executives Networking Group. MENG is a nearly 2,000 member, not-for-profit organization of senior-level marketing professionals that I’ve mentioned before.

As described in its launch announcement, the MENG Blend includes “timely insight, relevant advice, shared best practices and innovative thought leadership surrounding a myriad of marketing disciplines.” The blog is co-authored by 18 marketing professionals including some of the most well known names in marketing. I’m in the rotation as one of the six online and social media marketing bloggers, a list that includes Drew McLellan of The Marketing Minute and content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi from Junta 42.

Join Putnam, TIAA-CREF & Rock The Boat Marketing For Social Media Session In Boston Nov. 2

Pat — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:34:58 -0500

Putnam Investments and TIAA-CREF, two of the asset management industry's leaders in social media adoption, will be showcased at a social media session I'll be moderating on Tuesday, Nov. 2 at Fund Forum USA 2010 in Boston.

The conference bills itself as the "only event to bring together the U.S. & the global asset management community." Fund Forum USA 2010 runs from Nov. 2-3, preceded by a Global Distribution Summit whose theme is "restructuring the [investment product] distribution/manufacturer relationship." It sounds fascinating. Our social media session is scheduled from 5 to 6 on Nov. 2, immediately before the "Drinks Reception." Also interesting.

Rock The Boat Marketing can offer you a 20% speaker discount to the conference. If you register by August 13, you can apply the 20% to the early bird registration fee. After August 13, you'll get 20% off the prevailing fee. For your convenience, here's an Adobe Acrobat file of the brochure and registration form. Use the VIP code KN2254EMSPK when you register.

We're truly looking forward to hearing what Putnam's Mark McKenna, Head of Marketing & Communications, and TIAA-CREF's Stephen Johnson, Director of Social Media, have to say. Having launched and now maintaining accounts on many of the major social networking sites, these two firms are primed to talk about lessons learned, best practices developed and what's next.

The Old Spice Guy Was Ready And Waiting

Pat — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:25:59 -0500

I am doing my darnedest to do what expert bloggers do and that is to write ahead, to have some blog posts in the queue and ready to publish. But every time I try to do that, something more interesting comes along and I can’t not comment on it—which is at least consistent with the point of this blog post.

The post that I intended to publish today started with a gentle reminiscence about fly fishing on the Snake River. That was how I was planning to introduce the skill of reading one’s immediate environment and reacting appropriately. Pure gold, you’ll just have to trust me on this.

But then the Old Spice guy and his handlers started making video after video responding to famous and regular people on social networks in real-time. I’m guessing that you’ve heard about this viral hit, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to embed one of the brilliant commercials. You can see all of the responses on the Old Spice YouTube channel.

The Old Spice guy work is an excellent demonstration of an emerging communications competency: the preparing to improvise, the organizing to be able to react in the moment to external stimulus (like a fly fisherman does, by the way).

Meet 3 Wired Advisors Who Are Mastering Social Media

Pat — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:13:03 -0500

How many opportunities do mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketers have to meet financial advisors? Years ago, marketers and advisors mixed at top producer events or due diligence meetings, both today largely gone by the wayside. Traveling with the wholesaler, to the extent that it continues, may be the closest you get to a few advisors.

Online, of course, there have never been more opportunities to see advisors in action. That's the value proposition of our sister site AdvisorTweets.com, where we're aggregating financial advisors' tweets 24/7. But nothing beats listening to advisors talk in complete, connected sentences minus hashtags and shortened URLs.

This week Stephanie Sammons of WiredAdvisor.com moderated a Webcast that featured three of the most wired advisors we're aware of. They provided a close-up look at independent advisors who have mastered blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MailChimp, Google Analytics, etc. in just the last two years—and point to business successes they've enjoyed as a result.

And Now For A Splash Of Cold Water About Venturing Onto Other Domains

Pat — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:37:20 -0500

We consistently urge you to consider sharing your content and even limited functionality on other domains, primarily but not exclusively social networking sites. We’ve seen the effectiveness of content syndication and we stand by the recommendation.

But now seems like a good time to call your attention to the range of possibilities when venturing onto other domains. If you print and mail marketing pieces, if you advertise, if you send emails—heck, if you count on wholesalers to support a marketing campaign, you’re already familiar with the surprises/disappointments that can happen when you rely on others to deliver your message.

Always we believe that marketers should find the courage to imagine and seek to innovate. Um, but we offer the notes below—which we’re not representing to be either comprehensive or the final word—to encourage you to “hedge” your bets, for your firm and your team’s sake, when making social media plans and establishing expectations. Your message may not be sent on schedule, scale may not be possible, related data may not be yours.

When you make a plan that includes use of a site that’s out of your control, be aware of what you’re getting into. You’re affiliating with that site, in the same way that you affiliate your brand with a publication you advertise in or an email provider that you choose. In exchange for the opportunity to get in front of a larger or more engaged audience, you’re subject to your partner site’s rules and limitations.

Must-Read eBook For Investment Marketers

Pat — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:53:57 -0500

The in-box this morning delivered a link to an ebook that you must read if you’re marketing investment products. Tradestreaming and the Future of Investing is a 23-page compilation of multiple commentators’ view on “what’s happening online for investors and how investors stand to benefit.”

The ebook was put together by Zack Miller, who we know as the author of the newrulesofinvesting.com blog but who also is the managing director of a boutique investment firm. His official biography says he "embodies the nexus between asset management, equity research, and new Internet distribution technologies."

We “met” Zack on Twitter and are honored to have our few paragraphs include among commentaries from individuals representing businesses that are changing the work you do and its effectiveness.

You need to read what kaChing, SeekingAlpha, wikinvest and the others have to say and what it means for your business. We suspect that Zack’s selection of contributors and the perspectives they provide will push you and your firm to think more broadly about this ongoing online finance revolution.

How Prudential Is Laying The Social Media Groundwork

Pat — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:17:13 -0500

Debbi Corej, a vice president of Compliance at Prudential and one of the members of the FINRA Social Networking Task Force, was a guest speaker at a Socialware Webinar Tuesday moderated by Chad Bockius, Socialware CEO. It was an interesting hour.

Social media is everything that doesn’t come naturally to the investment industry—that is, it’s conversational, transparent, improvisational, experimental.

In order to force the square peg into the round hole, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done behind the scenes, as Corej comments show. What follows are excerpts from our notes but not a summary of all that was said. We encourage you to listen to a replay of the entire presentation.

Corej explained Prudential’s interest in social networking and the leadership role that Compliance is taking in setting the ground rules. Her comments were about what Prudential is doing at the enterprise level as well as at the broker-dealer level. At the broker-dealer level, social media is “on hold,” she said, pending resolution of how the regulatory requirements will be complied with.

“What we are trying to do is find a way to say yes,” said Corej.

Is 'Openness' Inevitable For Asset Managers, Too?

Pat — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:25:09 -0500

For the last two weeks I’ve been toting around a copy of Charlene Li’s Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead. This is a book I received an advance review copy of but would have happily paid for because I admire Li.

She’s the co-author of the 2008 book, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Her firm Altimeter Group provides high-value thought leadership on digital strategies, including some research we refer to in our Rock The Boat Marketing workshops.

I was certain that I was going to love Li’s book. But I read it with the asset management industry in mind and, well, it's made me agitated about the work to be done.

Li believes that “opening up” is inevitable. “In the past, organizational leaders had the luxury of remaining ensconced in their executive suites, opening up only when they felt the need to. Today there is information leakage everywhere, with company miscues and missteps spreading all over the Internet in seconds. And all involved—from employees and customers to business partners—feel entitled to give their opinions and get upset when their ideas are not implemented…The fundamental rules that govern how relationships work are being re-written, because of easy, no cost-information sharing.”

Google's Top 1,000 List Includes 5 Investing Sites—And Why You Might Care

Pat — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:43:44 -0500

I trust that you will let me know if this blog starts sounding like a broken record. But some data became available this week that might give you added inspiration to plan for syndicating your content and exploring off your own asset manager domain.

I was checking my RSS feeds this morning when I came across the announcement that Google will now publish a list of the top 1,000 global sites on the Web by unique users as measured by Google’s AdPlanner. Huge, which is what I tweeted. Whether you’re buying online media or not, this is just interesting.

Then I thought I’d take a look at where sites in Google’s “investing” category ranked on the first list published, for the month of April 2010.